1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a surface treated steel sheet having excellent corrosion resistance and being suitable for a steel sheet used for automobiles, building materials, electric equipment, and other applications, and relates to a method for producing thereof.
2. Description of the Related Arts
Cold-rolled steel sheets and other steel sheets used in automobiles have been reducing their sheet thickness aiming at the reduction of car-body weight and the reduction of production cost. The reduction of sheet thickness, however, reduces the net thickness after corrosion, which induces a problem of insufficient strength of the car-body after corroded. One of the most simple means to improve the corrosion resistance of automobile steel sheet is the increase of coating weight of zinc. The means, however, results in the increase of cost, and also induces a problem of separation of coating layer during the steel sheet working to expose the steel base material which is vulnerable to corrosion. In addition, the coating weight gives a significant effect to the spot welding which is widely employed in assembling automobile parts. In concrete terms, the increase of coating weight enhances the degradation of weldability. The steel sheets used in automobiles are requested to have a good formability such as deep drawing capability, as well as low cost. Responding to that kind of requirements, various types of steel sheets have been introduced, but none has fully satisfied those requirements.
For example, Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication (hereinafter referred to simply as "JP-A-") No. 3-253541 discloses that a steel of Cu-P system with reduced C, adding slight amount of S, and adding a specified amount of Si and Ti exhibits excellent corrosion resistance under an environment of repeated dry and wet cycle. JP-A-3-150315 discloses a method for producing steel sheet using a Cu-P system with reduced C and adding slight amount of Ni to give excellent corrosion resistance and formability. JP-A-4-141554 discloses a cold-rolled steel sheet having excellent corrosion resistance and having a high strength and a method for producing the steel sheet. JP-A-4-168246 discloses a cold-rolled steel sheet containing P, Ti, Nb, etc. and having excellent formability and corrosion resistance.
However, the steel sheet disclosed in JP-A-3-253541 is a Ti-killed steel, and the steel tends to generate surface defects and tends to induce nozzle plugging during the slab production in a continuous casting line. The method disclosed in JP-A-3-150315 specifies the use of box-annealing as the re-crystallizing crystallizing annealing to improve the formability. The box-annealing has, however, a tendency of cost increase and of segregation of P, which makes the steel brittle and degrades the workability.
The steel sheet disclosed in JP-A-4-141554 has disadvantages of the elongation (El) of less than 40%, Lankford value (rm value) of less than 2.0, which indicates an insufficient press-formability. In addition, a steel containing Cu, P, and Cr has a disadvantage of poor resistance to pitting. The cold-rolled steel sheet disclosed in JP-A-4-168246 contains P, Ti, Nb, etc., and that type of steel induces the occurrence of NbC to degrade the corrosion resistance.